Atlético Qualifies for Champions League Round of 16 After Victory Over Feyenoord

Atlético will be there. Extremely solid and with maximum offensive success, the Colchoneros won (3-1) Tuesday in Rotterdam against Feyenoord, and formalized their qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League. Antoine Griezmann’s partners benefited from two own goals (14th, 81st) and a brilliant inspiration from Mario Hermoso (57th) to disgust Feyenoord. They will play first place in this group E against Lazio in two weeks. Playful but too tender, Feyenoord is eliminated and will be transferred to the Europa League.

Every time he went to get the ball in his net, poor goalkeeper Justin Bijlow had good reason to go crazy. Completely beaten on his three goals conceded, the Batavian goalkeeper could only note the cold realism of Atlético. First there was this unfortunate deviation from its captain Lutsharel Geertruida, from the thigh on a seemingly innocuous bell-shaped cross following a corner (14th, 0-1).

The jewel of Hermoso

Then there was the genius of Mario Hermoso (57th, 0-2), served on a ladle at the corner of the surface and whose left volley nestled in the top corner, without us knowing if this extraordinary finish was entirely intentional. There was finally this deflection at the near post from its attacker Santiago Gimenez on a free kick (81st, 1-3), just to extinguish Feyenoord’s last hopes. The second top scorer in Europe behind Harry Kane (16 goals), lonely in attack and naive defensively on this one, alone reflects the performance of his team.

For the rest, the Dutch were constantly confronted with a cracked wall only once, on a corner taken victoriously by Mats Wieffer (77th, 1-2). In the game, Atlético never gave up and was happy to muzzle the Batavian attacks, without leaving the slightest space. And with the ball, the Colchoneros were much more precise than Feyenoord, with Antoine Griezmann more of a distributor than a scorer.

Griezmann knock on wood

The Frenchman still had two big chances, first on a beautiful volley from the left onto the post (47th) then on a vicious shot curled and deflected by the goalkeeper (75th). He could also have been a decisive passer for Alvaro Morata, if he had converted a first face-to-face just before the opening score (13th). He did not come close to Atlético’s goal record, held by Luis Aragonés (173 goals, three more from “Grizou”), but fully contributed to his team’s success, for Diego Simeone’s hundredth in C1 on the Atléti bench. A draw will be enough against Lazio, in two weeks, to finish the job and validate first place in the group.

2023-11-28 22:24:00
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